# Humidor leaking humidity



## Yukoner (Sep 22, 2016)

Hi all,

I've learned a LOT on Puff over the years (as a non-registered lurker, :grin2. That being said, I recently went further down the rabbit hole and started really expanding my collection, primarily for two reasons. One was to have more immediate "smokeable" cigars on hand. The other was to further my long-term storage collection. For the past 8 years I've been using a wine cooler (vinotemp) to store all my cigars. Generally speaking, I've never had an issue with RH using heartfelt beads in their tubes. Through what was probably neglect on my part not checking as often as I should, I did wind up with a very minor mold problem once, but otherwise (finger crossed), I've never had a serious issue with the vinotemp.

Now, fast forward to a few months ago. The wife and I decided to do some renovations to the home. Based on what we were doing, the vinotemp wasn't going to cut it anymore in terms of aesthetics. So I took the opportunity to pick out a more furniture-esque humidor. I've always been very, very happy with my vinotemp and how it's performed for me, especially since I got fairly lazy with it and have let it go for weeks without checking or opening it. That being said, I personally prefer a real wood humidor with Spanish cedar. I prefer the smell, I prefer the look, I prefer the wood's ability to absorb moisture, etc etc. Again, I'll be really clear that my vinotemp served me damn near PERFECTLY and I'm certainly not advocating for anyone not to use one. But simply put, my personal preference is wood and at this point in life in the home, it's what I need to go with.

So I ordered up this unit:










I was super excited to get it in (had to wait a couple weeks for shipping, as I live in a more rural area). When it arrived, I unpacked it, examined for damage and when all was deemed good, back in the box it went until the home renos were completed. Fast forward to ~4 weeks ago. Excitedly like a small child on Christmas, I cleaned out the inside of the new humidor and got ready to season it. I've never seasoned anything this size, so I figured I would do active as well as passive seasoning. I filled up my new Cigar Oasis (CO) Plus, got a shot glass of distilled water, put them both into the humidor along with a hygrometer and started the process. The ambient RH in the home was ~45% at the time, so the humidor had a long way to go. 6 days later, I was up to 55% RH. This was pretty much with the CO running nearly non-stop (80% of the time on, 20% off). I was getting a little worried at this point - the vinotemp never took this long to get RH up..... So I figured it must be because the wood was super dry, so I needed to give it more time. 5 days later, I'm up to 60% RH, hooray ! After that I lost the exact count of days but it was roughly another week after that and I got it up to 62% RH. Since my target is 65%, I figured I just about made it. But I was still worried. Something wasn't right. My CO was still running nearly non-stop and I was filling it at least every other day. My heart sank as I knew what the issue was weeks prior, but I just didn't want to admit it&#8230;. The seals on this humidor weren't working properly&#8230;..

I decided to stop attempting this seasoning and take a much closer look at the humidor. Here's some background about me. I live in an area where the RH can get VERY low in the winter. When it gets to -60 degrees F (yes, that's MINUS sixty degrees), the RH outdoors can drop down to 15-20%. This causes the humidity in the air inside a home to immediately get sucked out like a vacuum, through every air crack and poorly insulated window. Unfortunately I don't have a picture, but when it dips down this cold, you actually get ice buildup on the inside of your home's windows. Even worse in bathrooms when you take hot showers. Anyways, my point is, if I could barely get to my target RH of 65% (when in reality it should not be any issue to get to the industry standard of 70%) during the fall, how was this humidor going to react in the dead of winter ? I didn't want to chance my growing collection to that.

So, I decided to see what I could do about this seal issue. Before I go into my solutions and learnings, let me first say that even though I don't own an "American made" humidor and I have never seen one in person, I have great respect for those that take time with the craft and manufacture quality products. This Chinese-made piece of crap is, well, a piece of crap. When I inspected the humidor a lot closer, I found that the build quality is complete garbage. There were air gaps where joints should be flush and tight. The door not only didn't hold the "dollar bill test" very well, it actually didn't hold it at ALL (the money simply fell to the ground when let go). And the drawer might as well have not been there when doing the flashlight test. This Chinese-made crap shows no craftsmanship at all and while it was somewhat affordable, I certainly understand why one would pay more for a handmade, American humidor. At some point I do fully intend to purchase one of those, but it just isn't in the cards right now.

OK, as mentioned above, the humidor pretty much failed every humidity-leakage test I've read about. Dollar bill test. Flashlight test. Visual inspection for gaps test. You name it, it failed it. So, what to do ? Well, the very first thing I did was buy some weather stripping foam from the local hardware store. The roll was $5.95. I decided to put the weather stripping foam on the humidor's side vs on the door / drawer, simply because I figured it would be less likely to move or shift that way since it would always be on the stationary part of the humidor. You can see the pictures of this application below:










This looks pretty simple, but it's actually not. You need to line the foam up juuuuuuuuuuuuuuust perfectly. If you place the foam too far towards the outside, then you're creating a larger air gap because the door doesn't close as tightly as it should (because of physical resistance from the foam). If you put it too far towards the inside, the foam won't be touching the door when you close it, defeating the entire purpose. Again, seems simple, but lining that up perfectly takes some time. There was one section I had to do about 4 times, simply because I couldn't get it lined up properly.

Thinking that this was where most of the humidity was being lost, I started re-seasoning the humidor. After 2 days however, despite easily getting to above 60% RH already, I got skeptical with myself and started looking on the back of the humidor, and underneath. Low and behold, I found more air gaps, this time in joints. Quite frankly, this is absolutely unacceptable. These joints should be nearly airtight, period. There is no reason why there should be air gaps here. I should have checked this all out earlier, but you know, I was hoping the fix would be quick and not such a PITA. Back to the hardware store and picked up aquarium & food safe silicone (stuff is hard to find, seriously). I started with underneath the humidor. The following are pictures of the underside (A (you'll see these reference letters at the very bottom of this post)). I was not too concerned about how the silicone would look here, since this is the bottom of the humidor and no one would ever see it. In the rest of the pictures that follow, the green circles and arrows indicate areas where I applied silicone:




























Basically I created a bead around the entire bottom of the humidor where the joints are. I honestly don't suspect that I was losing a lot of humidity out the bottom but since I was going to be siliconing elsewhere anyways and underneath is never going to be visible to anyone when the humidor is upright, I figured it wouldn't hurt to run a bead and seal it up good.

Next was the door (B). The door has 2 aspects to it, the inner joint between cedar frame and glass, and the outer joint between the cedar frame which creates the seal with the humidor itself (this is where the door frame touches the newly applied weather stripping foam). I chose to seal both the inner and outer joints, as I have read quite a bit about how glass can be a huge potential for humidity leakage.

As mentioned at the beginning of this post, aesthetics matter to me. I found out pretty quickly that applying silicone changes the visible darkness of the Spanish cedar. Almost like I was applying a coloured stain to bare wood. I wasn't sure if this was going to be the case, but I did anticipate it. I don't want to ruin the aesthetic value of the humidor, otherwise it's worthless to me, so I kept the siliconing as much as possible to places that you wouldn't be able to see unless the door / drawer was open. The idea was that if the humidor was closed (like it will be for ~95% of its life), you wouldn't be able to tell that I went all willy-nilly with the silicone tube. So, in most places where I applied the silicone, I wound up wiping the bead with my finger. This did two things. It forcefully pushed the silicone into the joint, and also spread it to cover the entire surface of that particular side of the cedar. This way, I didn't wind up with a side of cedar that looks "splotchy", for lack of a better term. This kind of worked out, but keep in mind that I'm not a professional siliconer&#8230;.. Anyways, on to the door pictures:





































Finally, on the top glass and the drawer (C). The drawer is the worst part of this humidor. Out of the factory when I got the humidor, the drawer was basically seal-less. None. Nadda. Zero seal. I applied weather stripping foam just like the door, and that helped somewhat. However, it was apparent that silicone was also going to be needed here, and even then, the drawer is where I will always lose humidity. The poor construction of how it sits against the humidor is uneven. As well, it does not have enough weight and there is no magnet that keeps it "snug" against the humidor when closed. All of this combined means that it will ALWAYS leak humidity and I will have to accept that. Anyways, back to my sealing efforts. First image you're going to see one of the examples of where there was literally a straight air gap in the joint between the top of the humidor and the side. This gap was large enough to shove a Tylenol pill through. This isn't some interior shelf piece. This isn't some part of the drawer. This is the TOP and SIDE of the humidor itself. Again, absolutely appalling craftsmanship. Next image is the underside of the top of the drawer. So think of the top of the humidor, just looking at it from underneath up. Again, something you won't ever see whether the humidor is open or closed, so I wasn't too concerned about the beautification of my siliconing. The final two images are of the joints between the sides of the humidor and the top, on the inside, above the drawer on either side of it (image is upside down). In this instance, the joint gap was so large that I didn't have to worry about using my finger to force the silicone in or make it look aesthetically pleasing. A slow and steady bead of silicone out of the tube made a fine job of filling that gap as well as aesthetically coming out very clean. The very last image is a close up of that bead.





































For reference, I named the three main locations of my efforts A, B and C, as you can see in brackets in the above paragraphs. Here is an image of the locations I'm talking about in those respective places:










I am now at the point of letting my silicone adventures fully cure before I attempt seasoning again. I'm letting the silicone cure for 1 week, just because I'm paranoid and I still have my vinotemp, so I'm in no huge rush to get the new end table humidor up and running. Silicone stinks and that smell can take a while to go away. While the silicone is SUPPOSED to be cured within 24 hours (and, admittedly, it did stop smelling after a day), I'm giving it 7 days to be absolutely sure. Once that's done, I'm going to be seasoning for the third and, hopefully, final time. I will be using a combination of Heartfelt beads, the CO Plus, and a shallow dish of distilled water.

That took a lot longer to write than I was anticipating ! The point of this thread is to help anyone else who happens to purchase one of these Chinese-made crap humidors. They look nice, they're somewhat affordable, but they're really a piece of crap. Knowing what I know now, the FIRST thing I would do if I bought another one would be to silicone and weather strip right off the bat before trying to season it. I think if I had known this and been able to do it beforehand, I would be less pissed off about the craftsmanship and build quality. There's nothing more frustrating than purchasing something, trying to use it and then realizing that you actually need to do some "fixing" before it's usable. Again, maybe just me, but I would have felt better doing all this seal-prep before my first seasoning attempt.

I'll try and remember to update this thread once I get to actually re-seasoning again. I have no idea if my attempts to seal this humidor will be completely successful or not. My rational is that it can't be any worse, and since I got RH up a lot quicker after just sealing the door, this should help even more. Will the humidor hold RH well enough to keep stable and support long term storage of my cigar collection ? That's something I'll have to wait and see. If you got this far, thanks for reading ! :vs_cool:


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## Steve C. (Jun 16, 2015)

Very detailed and interesting. Keep us updated, sounds like you may have it licked.


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## Yukoner (Sep 22, 2016)

Steve C. said:


> Very detailed and interesting. Keep us updated, sounds like you may have it licked.


Thanks, I tried to include as much detail as possible for someone else tackling this as a first timer. That way, perhaps they won't have to go through the irritation and back-and-forth that I did. I'm now waiting for an order of HF beads to show up (which I'll be using in conjunction with the CO), before attempting the seasoning process again.


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## OneStrangeOne (Sep 10, 2016)

It looks like you got it to a point where it should hold humidity, kinda sux that you had to go to that extreame on a new humidor. Did you contact the manufacturer? I would be cureous to see what they had to say about it and would hope for a partial discount or credit.


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## WinsorHumidors (Feb 16, 2016)

Seems like too much work for me ... I'd be furious if I was forced to engineer and implement such measures to whip a brand new humidor into shape ... but then again, if you have solved all of the problems you'll have something you can be proud of.

*CT*


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## Yukoner (Sep 22, 2016)

OneStrangeOne said:


> It looks like you got it to a point where it should hold humidity, kinda sux that you had to go to that extreame on a new humidor. Did you contact the manufacturer? I would be cureous to see what they had to say about it and would hope for a partial discount or credit.


The problem with warranty and anything like that is while yes, I could harass the vendor that sold it to me, or the manufacturer (it's a Chinese import, so it's not like it's a small business where I can talk to the owner / builder), at a minimum I would have to ship the unit back down south, likely for replacement. Pure curiosity, I just checked, and it would literally cost me $612.19 to ship this thing to Vancouver, British Columbia. More than the humidor cost me...... If I can get it to hold humidity, I might talk to the vendor, who has always been very good to deal with. The thing is though, this is what it is, a cheap piece of crap that shows poor quality workmanship. That _is what I bought_, which I also hope educates people that read this thread who might be looking for a cheap, large humidor. As I mentioned in my post, I don't own a handmade American-made humidor, but I would venture to presume that the build quality would far surpass this.



WinsorHumidors said:


> Seems like too much work for me ... I'd be furious if I was forced to engineer and implement such measures to whip a brand new humidor into shape ... but then again, if you have solved all of the problems you'll have something you can be proud of.
> 
> *CT*


Oh trust me, I was NOT very happy when my first seasoning attempt failed miserably. If it weren't for my geographic location, I'd have done everything in my power to send it back and get a refund. My future (perhaps sooner than later) will be moving to a handmade, quality humidor. I know you make desktop humidors that are spoken of very highly, but do you make cabinets or chests ?


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## Yukoner (Sep 22, 2016)

Well, here it goes again. Started to re-season the humidor. Using the Cigar Oasis Plus along with a shallow dish of distilled water (no beads at this point). Ambient RH in the room was 31% when I started. Time elapsed has been 12 hours.


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## Yukoner (Sep 22, 2016)

About 30min shy of 24 hours into the seasoning process:


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## WinsorHumidors (Feb 16, 2016)

I do not make cabinets or chests. My shop is set up for boxes and stuff like that. Sorry ...

CT


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## TonyBrooklyn (Jan 28, 2010)

Yukoner said:


> Hi all,
> 
> I've learned a LOT on Puff over the years (as a non-registered lurker, :grin2. That being said, I recently went further down the rabbit hole and started really expanding my collection, primarily for two reasons. One was to have more immediate "smokeable" cigars on hand. The other was to further my long-term storage collection. For the past 8 years I've been using a wine cooler (vinotemp) to store all my cigars. Generally speaking, I've never had an issue with RH using heartfelt beads in their tubes. Through what was probably neglect on my part not checking as often as I should, I did wind up with a very minor mold problem once, but otherwise (finger crossed), I've never had a serious issue with the vinotemp.
> 
> ...


I admire your tenaciousness to get that bad boy sealed.
You would do better to use this next time.






Good Luck!:vs_cool:


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## Yukoner (Sep 22, 2016)

TonyBrooklyn said:


> I admire your tenaciousness to get that bad boy sealed.
> You would do better to use this next time.
> 
> https://www.amazon.com/Clear-Food-Grade-Silicone-Sealant/dp/B005XP5HO6#feature-bullets-btf
> Good Luck!:vs_cool:


Thanks! I can still see a flashlight leak by the drawer, but I'm hoping that between a decent quantity of beads and the CO, it won't matter much. If I can't get it to hold humidity well enough this time, then I'm just going to add another vinotemp and run two vinotemps. Not what I want to do, but might be what I _have_ to do depending how this turns out.

And thanks for the link. I don't think that stuff exists where I live, I've literally checked everywhere and only one store had the aquarium-grade stuff (which says it's also acceptable for use on surfaces that may come in contact with food). Your link is probably the absolute best stuff to use though. Good find for anyone who needs to do this in the future.


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## Yukoner (Sep 22, 2016)

Just about at the 48 hour mark and I'm reading 70% (my goal post-seasoning will be to keep 65%). For seasoning purposes, I'll want to get even higher than 70%, so I guess we'll see what happens. So far though, I've gotten much further than I did previously.


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## Yukoner (Sep 22, 2016)

72 hour mark. Now at 73%. I have not opened the cabinet (or drawer) since beginning the seasoning. Again, there is a shallow dish of distilled water along with my Cigar Oasis Plus running more or less non-stop (I set it to 85% RH).


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## Yukoner (Sep 22, 2016)

I'm going to switch to counting by days now. So 4 days since third seasoning attempt began. 74% RH. I was / am hoping that it's possible to get to 80%, just to prove that the humidor CAN get that high, even if it leaks a bit. Also I figure that's a good RH for the all the wood to take in moisture volume. I have yet to open the humidor at all, and I have no recharged the Cigar Oasis since this began....... Not sure how long the cartridge in it will stay humidified for ? My previous attempts I was manually refilling it every other day and it seemed to "need" the refill. Guess I'll have to wait and see with this one. I want to try and get to at least 7 days before opening it for the first time.


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## Yukoner (Sep 22, 2016)

Still holding 74% RH on day 5. CO is starting to cycle off slightly (it'll run for 10min straight, turn off for 5 seconds, then turn back on).


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## Yukoner (Sep 22, 2016)

Day 6, still at 74% RH. No change from yesterday. I'm starting to wonder if 74% is as far as it'll go, given that it's empty. Or perhaps I still need to give it a few days. FWIW, some of the distilled water has definitely evaporated. I didn't mark a line on the dish where I started (oversight on my part), so I can't tell you exactly how much, but definitely some has.


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## Yukoner (Sep 22, 2016)

Day 7, still no change, 74% RH with the CO cycling off for extremely brief periods of time.


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## OneStrangeOne (Sep 10, 2016)

Thanks for the updates. I am curious to see how this plays out, I have two humidors that I run electronics in (Le Veil) both are just under 4cu', one of these I built from scratch and one is an end table that I converted, it's been several years since I went thu the seasoning process but I don't remember the humidifier's running anywhere near as much as yours seems to be. I simply set it to 80 turned it on and closed it up, as best as I can remember the humidifier only ran non-stop for about 5 or 6 hours before it started cycling. Right now they cycle on maybe once or twice a week for a couple of minutes, the reservoir get refilled every 3-4 months. 
I am currently in the process of designing a walk in (144 cu') and will start building after the move next month. For this one I will build my own humidifier with a 7 gal reservoir and remote monitoring station.


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## Yukoner (Sep 22, 2016)

OneStrangeOne said:


> Thanks for the updates. I am curious to see how this plays out, I have two humidors that I run electronics in (Le Veil) both are just under 4cu', one of these I built from scratch and one is an end table that I converted, it's been several years since I went thu the seasoning process but I don't remember the humidifier's running anywhere near as much as yours seems to be. I simply set it to 80 turned it on and closed it up, as best as I can remember the humidifier only ran non-stop for about 5 or 6 hours before it started cycling. Right now they cycle on maybe once or twice a week for a couple of minutes, the reservoir get refilled every 3-4 months.
> I am currently in the process of designing a walk in (144 cu') and will start building after the move next month. For this one I will build my own humidifier with a 7 gal reservoir and remote monitoring station.


No problem, I plan to document this to the very end.... whatever that end is, lol. My CO is set to 84 or something (a few % above 80, I wasn't really that picky when I set it). The only other thing outside of the CO is the shallow dish of DW. The ambient RH in the room it's in is ~35% right now (heading into the winter season, so it isn't going to get any better until next spring). Certainly that's a contributing factor to keeping RH stable inside the humidor, as the room / house is literally sucking humidity like a vacuum cleaner. I presume this is where my vinotemp is having an easier time, as it's got more of an airtight seal. That being said, even the vinotemp will lose RH faster in the winter due to the low humidity environment it's in. Also, whatever impact this has, I don't have ANY beads in there as of yet. I use the 65% beads so I figured it wouldn't make any sense to have them fighting a continuously running CO.

This is just my gut instinct, but due to the poor craftsmanship of this humidor, along with my environment's RH, I REALLY don't see my CO cycling once or twice a week. I WISH it would. Then again, maybe with beads it'll be different. We'll just have to wait and see :smile2:

FWIW, I envy anyone who can make a walk-in humidor. I'd absolutely LOVE to take a walk-in closet and convert it.


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## Yukoner (Sep 22, 2016)

OK folks, day 8. Still at 74% RH, no change in CO behaviour. I opened the cabinet's door for ~10 seconds to get my CO out. The cartridge for the CO was completely bone dry. Like literally as if it were brand new out of the box from the manufacturer. Not the slightest hint of dampness. I refilled it and prep'd it to be returned to the cabinet (for reference for those who were curious, the CO was set to 80% RH). As an experiment, I left the CO out of the humidor for exactly 1 hour to see what would happen to the RH inside. The only humidification left inside the cabinet was a shallow dish of DW, no fans or anything else. After 1 hour, RH inside the humidor was still at 73%. I opened the cabinet door again to put the CO back in. This time the door was open for maybe 30 seconds. After getting it closed up and waiting a few minutes, RH dropped down to 72%. As I write this, it's back up to 73% within 10 minutes of the CO running again.

I took the opportunity to take a quick look at the shallow dish of DW to try and gauge how much of it has evaporated. If I had to make an educated guess, I'd say about 2 to 3 shot glasses worth of DW have evaporated thus far. Combine that with the entire amount of DW that a CO XL Plus holds, and that's what has been lost and / or absorbed by the humidor.

So far.... well.... I don't really know what to think. It would _appear_ that the humidor is holding RH a lot better than it was before I performed surgery on it. It's hard to tell though, and even more difficult as the humidor has no cigars in it yet, which I know helps to stabilize things and keep the RH swings down. I believe the real test will be when I decide that seasoning is completed and I drop the RH down to 65% and get my Heartfelt beads in there. I'm really curious if the CO will start cycling on and off more, and opposed to this 99% on nonsense. I'm also hesitant to introduce any cigars (loose or boxed) into the humidor, as I'm paranoid now and I'd rather throw the entire cabinet into the garbage before risking even a single box of mine (understand that where I live it's VERY difficult to buy cigars). In any case, back to the waiting game. 1 more week of seasoning and I'm curious this time how the CO makes out.


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## Yukoner (Sep 22, 2016)

Day 9. As mentioned yesterday, I refilled the CO which was bone dry. When I checked this morning (less than 8 hours later), I was already up to 81% RH. Now, 24 hours after refilling the CO, I'm at 82%. Obviously the CO was completely drained dry and wasn't able to put out any higher RH. Interestingly, this meant that the humidor and the shallow dish of distilled water were the only thing keeping the 74% RH I had for several days. Promising results, although I'm still cautiously optimistic. CO seems to be cycling more now, about 30 seconds on, 5 seconds off.


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## Yukoner (Sep 22, 2016)

Day 10. I woke up to still find 82% inside the humidor. I have / had a gut instinct that this is as far as I'm going to get. Upon returning home this evening, I found 82% RH, holding steady. I chose to move the CO down to a setting of 70, see what happens. That was 3 hours ago. Since then, I've lost 3% RH, so still at 79% inside the humidor. Again, this is just with a CO and a shallow dish of DW. I'll be curious to see what it sits at tomorrow morning.


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## Yukoner (Sep 22, 2016)

Day 11. 24 hours after turning down my CO, I'm still at 76%. This is with the CO off and not cycling on (it's set to 70 now), and still a shallow dish of DW inside the humidor. Again, my expectations were not very high for this humidor, but it does seem to be doing much, much better.


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## n0s4atu (Apr 24, 2016)

Looks like you've managed to get it sealed and absorbing the humidity really well now. Congrats. It's a really nice looking humidor too and now that it's truly functional definitely a great piece.


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## Steve C. (Jun 16, 2015)

Yep, I think you've got it whipped. :smile2:


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## Yukoner (Sep 22, 2016)

Thanks guys ! I'm hoping so.

Day 12. 48 hours after turning down the CO, the humidor is down to 74% RH. I have now removed the shallow dish of DW to see what effect that has. The CO, to my knowledge, has not cycled on since I turned it down.


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## Yukoner (Sep 22, 2016)

Day 13. Three days after turning down the CO and one day after removing the shallow dish of DW, I'm still at 73% RH. Again, to my knowledge, the CO has not cycled on yet.


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## Yukoner (Sep 22, 2016)

Day 14. Four days after turning down the CO and two days after removing the dish of DW. 71% RH. Again, as far as I can tell, the CO has not cycled on. I'm going to wait until RH dips down to around 67% or so until introducing sticks.


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## Yukoner (Sep 22, 2016)

Day 15. Five days after turning down the CO and three days after removing the DW, the humidor has come down to 70% RH. Like before, I am unaware of the CO having cycled on yet. For anyone who's curious, the humidor is in my bedroom (we have a large bedroom that has a sitting area and fireplace on one side and our bed / nightstands / closets on the other), and the CO is audible at night time, so there's a good chance I'd have noticed if it cycled on. And I realize I haven't put up a pic in a while, so here is tonight's:


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## csk415 (Sep 6, 2016)

I would say you have a pretty good seal. Had to go back and look since I wasn't sure if you had some sort of cooling device since your showing 64deg. Guessing your bedroom is sitting at that temp. How do people live in your area? The -60 reference in the 1st post was bad enough. I know 64 isn't bad for an outside temp. Inside is a different story.


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## Yukoner (Sep 22, 2016)

csk415 said:


> I would say you have a pretty good seal. Had to go back and look since I wasn't sure if you had some sort of cooling device since your showing 64deg. Guessing your bedroom is sitting at that temp. How do people live in your area? The -60 reference in the 1st post was bad enough. I know 64 isn't bad for an outside temp. Inside is a different story.


lol, I'm even having trouble keeping 64 ! That's during the day. Once it hits 11pm-ish, the heat turns down to 60 degrees for the night. Neither my wife nor myself can sleep in anything hotter. We tried keeping 64 degrees constant no matter the time of day but just sweated like crazy during the night, so had to turn it down. Actually, I've been wondering about how low of a temp you should go for storing cigars...... I know less than 70 is ideal to keep the beetle away, but at what point is it too low ? BTW - today it's 10.1 degrees F outside and we got about an inch of snow. Winter is here it would seem


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## csk415 (Sep 6, 2016)

Ya I'm not sure on the temp either. Would have to look at all the freeze/wineador threads and see where they sit. You sweat at 60. Hell I'm putting a hoodie on. 


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


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## Yukoner (Sep 22, 2016)

csk415 said:


> Ya I'm not sure on the temp either. Would have to look at all the freeze/wineador threads and see where they sit. You sweat at 60. Hell I'm putting a hoodie on.


I'm headed to Austin next week. Environment shock for me I'm thinking ?


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## csk415 (Sep 6, 2016)

From winter to spring. Even tho it's fall. Wish I was closer to Austin. Enjoy your trip. If you have time hit 6th street. There is a cigar company there called bobalus. They have a shop on 6th. 


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## Yukoner (Sep 22, 2016)

csk415 said:


> From winter to spring. Even tho it's fall. Wish I was closer to Austin. Enjoy your trip. If you have time hit 6th street. There is a cigar company there called bobalus. They have a shop on 6th.


I actually pre-bought 10 boxes from Bobalu. Picking up atn their 6th St location (I'm staying about 5 blocks away). I can't buy cigars where I live (seriously, no joking) and I'm not allowed to purchase online and have them shipped to me due to inter-provincial trade laws. So every time I'm in the good old USA, I bring back my entire duty-free allowance. Otherwise I'd never be able to grow my collection.


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## Yukoner (Sep 22, 2016)

Day 16. Six days after turning down the CO and four days after removing the DW, the hygrometer sits at 68%.


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## csk415 (Sep 6, 2016)

Yukoner said:


> I actually pre-bought 10 boxes from Bobalu. Picking up atn their 6th St location (I'm staying about 5 blocks away). I can't buy cigars where I live (seriously, no joking) and I'm not allowed to purchase online and have them shipped to me due to inter-provincial trade laws. So every time I'm in the good old USA, I bring back my entire duty-free allowance. Otherwise I'd never be able to grow my collection.


Did not know your struggles to get smokes was that bad.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


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## OneStrangeOne (Sep 10, 2016)

I'm in Austin, bring short's. High temps in the mid to high 80's low's in the 60's. If you get a chance check out Hero's and Legacies, Habana House, and Pipe World. 
All three have a very good selection.


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## csk415 (Sep 6, 2016)

*Yukoner* 
Did the silicone you use have any kind of odor? I picked up a small tube of aquarium/food grade at home depot and I noticed it has a vinegar like aroma. Was yours the same and did smell go away? I have a little test patch curing at the house to see if the smell goes away. As of this morning it still had some of the smell.


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## Yukoner (Sep 22, 2016)

csk415 said:


> Did not know your struggles to get smokes was that bad.


Yep. Tobacco tax in my territory is 130% of wholesale, with no maximum amount. Most other provinces in Canada have a cap. For example, in Alberta, the current tax rate is:

October 28, 2015 to current
129% of the "taxable price " of the cigar
25 cents minimum
$7.83 maximum

In the Yukon, we have no maximum. So literally a $10.00 wholesale stick gets $13.00 in tax added to it, BEFORE any profit can be made. For this reason (and with a relatively smaller population), we don't have any B&Ms here. Inter-provincial trade laws in the Canada also prohibit tobacco to be shipped across provincial borders. So while Alberta, for example, might have a more reasonable tax rate on cigars, I can't order from Alberta because the tobacco retailers aren't allowed to ship outside of Alberta. In other words, my only opportunity to purchase cigars is when I'm travelling outside the Yukon. I've driven 15 hours to get into Alberta to buy cigars before. I think I should win Puff's award for most dedicated cigar purchaser. lol



OneStrangeOne said:


> I'm in Austin, bring short's. High temps in the mid to high 80's low's in the 60's. If you get a chance check out Hero's and Legacies, Habana House, and Pipe World.
> All three have a very good selection.


Excellent, I'm hoping for some warmth before our cold, dead winter gets into full swing. I already scoped out Habana House online, definitely going to check them out !



csk415 said:


> *Yukoner*
> Did the silicone you use have any kind of odor? I picked up a small tube of aquarium/food grade at home depot and I noticed it has a vinegar like aroma. Was yours the same and did smell go away? I have a little test patch curing at the house to see if the smell goes away. As of this morning it still had some of the smell.


Yes, the aquarium-grade silicone stank like junk when applying it. On the back of my tube it has a warning that it should only be used in well ventilated areas as the silicone gives off acetic acid while it's curing. The tube says cured within 24 hours, but I left mine for 7 days. Call me paranoid, but once you shut that humidor, any minuscule smell is going to stay in there more or less permanently. I will say, after 2 days, I could not smell a thing. My wife, who has a much, much better nose than me also could not smell a thing. Again, I left my humidor fully open for 7 days JUST in case. I think you'll be fine if you just leave it to fully cure. Keep in mind that I'm at a very low RH in my house, so if your RH is higher, I'd leave it even longer to cure.


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## Yukoner (Sep 22, 2016)

Day 17. Seven days after turning down the CO and five days after removing the DW. RH today is at 67%. And for the first time, I heard the CO cycle on. About a five second run, and I haven't heard it cycle on since (that's once in a 3+ hour span). We'll see if it runs tonight or not. The onboard hygrometer on the CO swings kind of crazy, so I'm not sure how accurate it is or more specifically, when it's accurate. It's showing between 69% and 74%, fluctuating with no real rhyme or reason. I've read in other threads that it does this because of where its hygrometer sits, but that it can still provide a stable, accurate RH. At this point in time I'm not doubting that, just pointing out an observation.


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## Yukoner (Sep 22, 2016)

Day 18. Eight days after turning the CO down and six days after removing the shallow dish of DW. RH today is still holding a steady 67%. I presume the CO is cycling on very intermittently, but it's not running all the time like it was before. Going to wait another day or two to see if the RH comes down any further (keeping in mind that my target is 65%).


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## Yukoner (Sep 22, 2016)

Day 19. Nine days after turning down the CO and seven days after removing the DW. RH this evening is 65%. I've heard the CO cycle on twice now within the span of a few hours. About 5 second run times still. I think I'm close to done my third and final seasoning attempt.


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## Yukoner (Sep 22, 2016)

OK, final update to this thread. I've stopped tracking the daily changes. The RH has settled down to 65% and I find the CO is cycling on and off, about 30 seconds on every 30ish min. The CO is currently the ONLY humidification the cabinet has. While I'm fairly confident that the humidor could safely keep RH for storing boxes, I've decided to move into a larger cabinet. This one wound up being smaller than I originally anticipated, and combined with its issues, I figured I'd just be better off going larger at this point in time. I'm not sure what I'll do with this one, either keep it or sell it, but in any case the experiment of getting it to seal properly was a worthwhile endeavor and I learned a lot from doing it. I hope this thread and it's subsequent daily tracking will help a BOTL/SOTL facing a similar predicament.


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